Anna Lindh

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Anna Lindh was a strong anti-Zionist, and as the foreign minister of Sweden since 1998, she had carried out the policies of the Swedish Social Democratic Government. In an interview in October 2001, she made the following remarks:“Israeli settlements on the West Bank must go; there must be a Palestinian state; Israel must vacate occupied areas on the West Bank and the Gaza strip and all extra-territorial executions and attacks on Palestinians must cease; this should be done immediately.”

As foreign minister, Lindh had called upon the European Union (EU) on April 3, 2002, to sever ties with Israel in protest against Israeli practices. She had also called upon President Bush to deny Israeli Prime Minister Sharon unconditional support. She had stressed that the only solution in the Middle East rested in ending the Israeli occupation, and as a foreign minister she had played an important role in shaping the EUâ€™s decision to adopt a policy toward Palestinian President Yasser Arafat different from that of the U.S..

Privately she had described Ariel Sharon as “a maniac,” and during an interview on Swedish television she had stated that she would not buy Israeli goods and fruits sold in Swedish markets.

Just a few days before her murder, she had attended a conference of European foreign ministers at Riva Garda, Italy, and at this meeting she blamed the United States and Israel for the collapse of the “Roadmap to Peace Plan” and the resignation of the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Before Anna Lindh had become foreign minister, she had visited the territories occupied by the Israelis, and at this time she was seized and detained for two days by the Israeli military under order from Ariel Sharon, then defense minister of Israel. Needless to say, Anna Lindh was not very well liked by the current Israeli government.

Christopher Bollyn:
“Lindhâ€™s principled and unequivocal position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was like that of the late Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986, and Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nationâ€™s Mediator on Palestine, who was brutally murdered by a Zionist terror gang near Jerusalem in 1948.

The assassination of Bernadotte, ‘at the hands of the Israeli terrorist organization’ began a lethal Swedish connection with Palestine,’ Ashrawi wrote. ‘Palestine lost its first Swedish champion,’ Ashrawi wrote, when Bernadotte ‘was brutally murdered, shot at point blank, by three Jewish Stern Gang members in Jerusalem.’

In 1986, then Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot as he walked home from the cinema with his wife. As Ashrawi noted, Palme had sought recognition for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a validation for the peaceful resolution of the conflict through ending the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab lands. Palmeâ€™s politics were based on international legality and UN resolutions, and ‘a deeply-felt commitment to fairness and human decency,’ Ashrawi wrote.”

“Swedenâ€™s popular foreign minister Anna Lindh is the third high-ranking Swedish political opponent of Zionism to have been murdered since 1948, which raises the question: Was Lindh assassinated because of her outspoken opposition to Israelâ€™s occupation of Palestine?” Christopher Bollyn

Bollyn writes:

The death of Lindh and the late UN representative in Baghdad, Sergio Vieira de Mello, represents the loss of ‘two voices who called with determination for salvaging the UNâ€™s role in Iraq and for implementing its resolutions in Palestine,’ Bouthaina Shaaban, a minister in the new Syrian government, wrote in The Daily Star (Lebanon).

Shaaban noted that Lindh had:-

Â· Called upon the European Union, on April 3, 2002, to sever ties with Israel in protest against Israeli practices;
Â· Called on US President George W. Bush to deny Sharon unconditional support, as this would inflame the Middle East;
Â· Stressed that the only solution in the Middle East rested in ending the Israeli occupation (otherwise everybody would become a hostage to the conflict);
Â· Played an important role in shaping the EUâ€™s decision to adopt a policy toward Palestinian President Yasser Arafat different from that of the U.S.;
Â· Confirmed the importance of Arafat as a partner in the peace process, rejecting Washingtonâ€™s claims that he supported terrorism;
Â· Stood firmly against the war on Iraq;
Â· And warned of the dangers of changing another countryâ€™s regime without the support of international law.

Regarding weapons of mass destruction, Lindh called for the creation of a Middle East free of such weapons, including Israel. Lindh strongly opposed the Anglo-American aggression and occupation of Iraq.

Lindhâ€™s principled and unequivocal position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was like that of the late Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986, and Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nationâ€™s Mediator on Palestine, who was brutally murdered by a Zionist terror gang near Jerusalem in 1948.

The assassination of Bernadotte, ‘at the hands of the Israeli terrorist organization’ began a lethal Swedish connection with Palestine,’ Ashrawi wrote. ‘Palestine lost its first Swedish champion,’ Ashrawi wrote, when Bernadotte ‘was brutally murdered, shot at point blank, by three Jewish Stern Gang members in Jerusalem.’

In 1986, then Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot as he walked home from the cinema with his wife. As Ashrawi noted, Palme had sought recognition for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a validation for the peaceful resolution of the conflict through ending the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab lands. Palmeâ€™s politics were based on international legality and UN resolutions, and ‘a deeply-felt commitment to fairness and human decency,’ Ashrawi wrote.

Ulf Dahlsten, Palme’s personal secretary in 1986, said that Lindh was the most important Swedish political figure since the late prime minister. In her speeches against the war in Iraq and in support of the Palestinians, Lindh was seen as Palme’s natural heir. There have long been rumors in intelligence circles that Lindh was the daughter of Palme. ”